Reviews

So everyday, drawing away, modeling a structure, making sure it fits what is developing in your head, anxious to wow your client, bringing in the right textures, getting the traffic flow just so, watching the shadows pass in a daylighting study and finally deciding it's ready - Except, while you know where it sits on the property, you haven't documented the property lines, the metes and bounds, the streets - ah, the drudgery...

Not anymore, Mr. Milliken has developed an extension that makes all the totally un-intuitive survey layouts easy to do. Now, starting with a properly detailed site is straight forward, so your design process will be as it should be and your model is in the real world.

{I thought I had successfully posted in the previous version reviews} Anyway:
I recently purchased this extension at version 2. It was an excellent plugin then, and I upgraded to version 3. The added features really improve an already powerful and effective product. If you do sitework documentation, and you use Sketchup, this extension truly does help.
Tim B

When R#v#t came out, long before big A purchased the company, that prog had no usable site tools. I contracted them, among many others, and because there was interest, soon tools were implemented. They were "o.k.", for the 2d need, but son became bogged down in the rush to 3d bim, and have not improved much in 15 years particularly in the area of simple metes and bounds plot maps. So to feel 100% confident, i found myself reverting to "Land", and doing the import export shuffle.

Oddly enough, many programs that pass themselves off as architectural design software are likewise lacking in simple plot plan generating functions. And this is super ironic considering this is always the very first step in the due diligence required to design a proper and legal footprint of a proposed structure. As for designers who believe that the placement of the structure on a plot is someone else's responsibility, or that nothing matters in terms of software because someone else is footing the bill, I can only point to the numerous law suits I have witnessed, where every individual whom even looked at the condoc with an encroachment or boundary violation, gets named in the suit ( let alone the examples of physical structures I've seen partially torn down, and others where lot splits were negotiated and hundreds of thousands and credibility destroyed, all because simple, avoidable mistakes grew from overlooked eeo's) And I'm strictly talking about projects in the residential design industry here, not high dollar starchitect endeavors. It always starts with the plot plan.

So my long winded point is this; thank you for filing a long overdue gap of an absolutely critical tool in the box that will eventually round out sketch up into the complete and professional combination of modules that it deserves to be, in order to produce viable, presentable condocs.

This app alone could finally put me in a position where I may be able to go 100 % SU in my quest to dump the addiction that is super premium (as in dollars) bim. I have searched high and low, for many, many years, for a simple solution to simple plot and sub d software that doesn't take a brick of gold and a year of learning. (Interestingly, the only program module that ever scratched my itch was one of the original bim programs, Arris Cad. It had a module very similar to yours in terms of easy functionality, and common sense approach to plot mapping). And the fact that your extension works within SU is just about all I could hope for.

Thank you so much, and i will report back after i have had a chance to put this program through its paces on some real world projects. (And i promise not to wrap my follow up review up in an overly worded essay :) ) Thank you again.

Anyone who needs to plot out real estate legal descriptions NEEDS to get this Plugin. I have found it so easy to use and was able to start using almost immediately. I was using CAD software costing thousands of dollars prior to finding 2DXY SiteSurvey.

Now, for $25.00, I am doing the same functions, but saving thousands of dollars!

I perform Commercial title examinations involving several millions of dollars, and this Plugin has given me complete confidence that the metes and bounds legal descriptions I plot out with 2DXY SiteSurvey is extremely accurate.

Additionally, it is great for importing Google Maps, surveys, etc. into your description as an overlay with help from layers, all at current scale.

I use this Plugin almost every day, and really, I could not do my work as efficiently or accurately as I do with 2DXY SiteSurvey.

I have been using this for more than two years, and I would be lost without it.

Since Sketchup is for everyone, I can't blame Trimble for not having a tool that is so specific for the building professions. But we need it! This plugin is exactly what I needed. It's a real time saver, and like it says in the tutorial it will pay for itself on day one. Well done! I hope Trimble pays you big money and incorporates this into SU.

Just purchased , Great add-on. I,m a retired commercial construction superintendent who likes to dabble in residential remodels and addons. Looks as if this will work perfectly for making plot plans for building permit requirements.

I have purchased both 2DXY Site Survey and SlickMoves ! They both work extremely well and are huge time savers! Well done Barry! Also, the support from Barry has been 2nd to none and very much appreciated. Let me know when you develop the next time saver Barry!

LOOKS GREAT PLUGIN HOW TO MAKE PLOTS IN THAT LAND AND DIVISION OF LAND INTO PLOTS FOR EXAMPLE 30X30 AND ROAD GARDEN SPACE CIVIC AMENITIES ETC I HAVE A VIDEO ITS OTHER OTHER SOFTWARE I WANT THAT WAY DIVISION OF LAND OF U C THE VIDEO AND REPLY MEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4czWq0X4x0

2DXY SiteSurvey is a $25 (lifetime license) plugin for SketchUp that allows you to draw site boundaries and label them correctly. You need to learn how to use SketchUp first before you can use 2DXY SIteSurvey.

The video you refer to is for automatic subdivision and civil engineering design. It is very complex and cost $3000 per year.

Version 2.0 just released allows arc center angles up to 180 degrees. Larger arc angles can be achieved by adding another arc of the same radius connected to the last arc. (180 is the maximum possible because an arc defined by chord length would not be unique for larger angles.)

As it says above: NOTE: This extension supports Quadrant Bearings where each bearing angle is NE, SE, SW or NW. This is the common practice in North America. Azimuth Bearings (where each angle is measured clockwise from N) are not yet supported.
Quadrant bearings are by definition always less than 360/4 = 90 degrees.

I understand that quadrant bearings are used on straight lines, although most software that reports bearings generally utilizes azimuths for calculations and then converts to a quadrant bearing. What I don't understand is why the delta is limited to 90 degrees on the arcs? Chord length and radius are reported independent of quadrant bearings. There are many instances for example undivided lots at the end of new subdivisions or road curves along property lines, where an arc with a delta greater than 90 must be reported.

This is a great extension, however being limited to 90 degree deltas is holding me back from the purchase. If remedied, I would buy for sure.

I understand, but in my experience, arcs with greater than 90 degree angles are rare.
And it's easy to add an arc (with the same radius) tangent to another arc to get any size you may want.
And notationally, I'm limited to labeling the chord: I can't label along the curve of the arc using SketchUp text tools.
So the result for a 180 degree arc would be two 90 degree tangent arcs, each with it's own dimension.
The important thing is to get the geometry from an existing survey correct for use in design.
I'm not expecting these tools to be used by surveyors to publish their work.

No, because it doesn't need to. 2DXY SiteSurvey is intended for relatively small (less than 50 acres) building parcels or subdivisions. State plane coordinate systems are needed only for large scale geographic mapping.
However, to show the location of your lot or subdivision within the state, it's easy to add a SketchUp Leader text element: edit it to include the state coordinates and connect it to the bearing vertex labeled on your survey. Lot surveys usually only need to show the state coordinates for one benchmark vertex.
From that single point, bearings and arcs fully describe the property.

You misunderstand how it works: You license codes are on your machine, (in WIndows under the Program Data folder) but not stored with the extension itself. No internet connection required. The process is best handled within SketchUp (rather than within the flaky problems associated by trying to code this in a way that can work with multiple browsers that users might use to download.) which has to decide mac vs WIndows, is this conversion from trial to full license, is this upgrade from older version to newer. etc etc. Much to tricky to make it foolproof for a browser download and quite different from what an installer like Installshield does.

Thanks for the explanation. I probably failed to make myself clear about my preferences. I prefer to pay for my software, download it (with serial / password / whatever) and have it backed up on my hardware ready for installation and offline activation if I ever need to do so.

This discussion is going nowhere since, essentially, SketchUp decided how it's going to approach these matters. From an IP protection point of view it seems great, from my point of view it's not as great in the event of no connection to the internet (or website / -s for that matter).

2DXY Site Survey is the first Sketchup plugin I've ever purchased, and it was a must-have as soon as I discovered it. I've used commercial plat drawing applications (DeedPlot, etc.,) but they lack the immense power available in Sketchup. Instead,I've been using "Surveytool.rb" to create site drawings inside Sketchup, but that tool is limited.

Great tool but need some help to tie it all together with Google Earth.
1. I’ve imported Google Earth via geo-location and can manually adjust axis for lat/log coordinate.
2. Maybe not a function of 2dxy, how can I mark a location on GE geo-location by entering another lat/log coordinate? Or put another way, if I draw a rectangle (or any other geometric form) on GE geo-location in SU, how can I get the corner points to show in lat/log coordinates?
3. Is it possible to set the coordinate of the starting point of 2dxy first line?
4. For drawing produced in 2dxy, how can I get the ends of lines to show in lat/lon coordinates?
Thanks

I developed this extension so that any user could draw a typical survey for a building site.
Such surveys (in North American) usually have no geo location data.

The beginning vertex of the first bearing line of a traverse can be moved to any XY coordinate position: just use the Sketchup tape measure tool to create X and Y guides that intersect at the desired position. Then select the first bearing line beginning vertex and move it to the intersection of the 2 guides.

You can use the standard sketchup Text tool: If you select a vertex the text will automatically display the XYZ coordinates. You can then edit the text to insert Lat/Long data

Adding geolocation data labeling is on my list of future enhancements.
Please email me with more details of what you are trying to accomplish:
- Are you importing kmz or just earth imagery?
- Send jpg or pdf of your desired result.

While I love to use SketchUp for 3D design, many basic design tasks are fundamentally 2D.
My extensions will enable and streamline such tasks.
I am a licensed architect and have been an avid SketchUp user since the first beta release in 2000. (See my architectural website nearby.)
I have been using 3D CAD since 1977, and also have developed extensions to other 2D and 3D CAD systems at various times since then.